Pet Trade

by Carol Van Natta

  “What’s wrong with her?” asked the black-haired man.

  Kanaway grinned. “Oh, the little subbin’ bitch wants me so bad she’s trembling. Did you miss me?”

  She shuddered, but somehow found the courage to look at him straight in the eye. “I hope Breitenbahn liked the record of what you did.” She glanced down at his crotch. “Cured your soft and tiny problem yet?”

  The blonde woman guffawed loud and long.

  Rage flared in Kanaway’s eyes as he slapped Bethnee. “That fake vid got me blacklisted from the trade.” He slapped her again, harder. She staggered with the impact. She straightened up and watched him warily. At least her time in Breitenbahn’s cruel circus had taught her how to take a hit.

  The Asian woman gave Kanaway a hard look. “Enough.” She turned and gave Bethnee a plastic smile. “We’re looking for a pet-trade shipment.” Her tone turned cajoling. “Help us, and we’ll give you a percentage of the reward.”

  Bethnee spat blood on the snowy ground near Kanaway’s boots and said nothing.

  The Asian woman sighed and gestured toward the man with the red mohawk. “Domaki, find out where the shipment is and let’s go.” She cast an annoyed look at Kanaway. “Move, Kanaway.”

  Kanaway’s thin lips curled in hatred, but he stepped back. In Bethnee’s jagged memories, he was big and impossibly strong, but seeing him now made her realize he was actually shorter than her.

  The red-haired man moved closer. “She’s hard to read.” He took off his glove. “I need to touch her.”

  The blonde woman grabbed Bethnee’s arm, stripped off her glove, and forced her to hold out her hand. Domaki grabbed Bethnee’s trembling, ice-cold fingers.

  Bethnee felt the man’s telepathic talent questing for her mind and memories. She plunged her mind into Jynx’s and focused on the snow leopard’s alien thoughts.

  Distantly, she heard words with her ears and in her mind, but Bethnee-the-leopard ignored them as unimportant.

  Domaki pushed a succession of images of pet-trade animals at her. She didn’t recognize any of them until he got to a foo dog and six-legged chimera with two tails. She pulled out of Jynx’s mind, because snow leopards didn’t know how to lie. Bethnee shot Domaki a memory of when she’d treated Kivo for the near-fatal illness and his breathing had stopped. Dead.

  All of them? demanded Domaki.

  She felt him nibbling away at the corners of her mind, trying to access other memories. She called up image after image of animals she’d raised on Breitenbahn’s ship, and let Domaki feel her deep sadness for each one she’d lost.

  How do you know Kanaway?

  The question took her by surprise, leaving her vulnerable to Domaki’s probe into her darker memories. When he touched the worst of them, she felt the first wave of the familiar deep, seizure-like tremors.

  Frelling hell! Domaki apparently didn’t like her memories any more than she did.

  She spitefully sent him the indelible image of how she’d looked after Kanaway finished, with a swollen face, and bruises and blood everywhere. How he’d shoved her half-conscious naked body into a ship’s autodoc to heal away evidence of the assault, unaware that the ship’s security monitors recorded his actions.

  Domaki hastily withdrew from Bethnee’s mind. She collapsed to her knees, heart racing, gasping for breath, unable to control her shudders.

  Domaki backed away. “The research chimera died some time back. She hasn’t seen any of the other animals.”

  “Bullshit,” snarled Kanaway. His hands curled into fists. “She’s the only small-animal vet on the planet. She’s a stubborn, lying bitch.”

  Domaki gave Kanaway a disgusted look. “Don’t tell me how to do my job, you warped little twist.” Domaki pulled on his glove. “It’s been eleven months since the bounty was posted for that shipment, and the active tracers are in a herd of mountain goats, not high-end pets. She doesn’t know anything.” He looked to the orange-tinged horizon. “If we leave now, we can meet Blue team at Point Exeter before it gets light.”

  “She’ll have animals in her house.” Kanaway could sound very reasonable when he wanted to. “If any of them are valuable, we can at least show a profit.”

  Domaki shoved his hands under his armpits and shook his head. “Ain’t gonna be me that compels her to let us in.” He cast another disgusted look at Kanaway. “Too many bad memories.”

  “Give me five minutes with her,” said Kanaway, his tone persuasive. “I bet I can get her to talk.”

  The Asian woman hesitated, then shook her head. “No more fishing. We’re out of time. Trummler okayed this mission because Kanaway’s intel pointed to Del’Arche for where the high-value shipment ended up, and it’d be a quick in-and-out to question the only two veterinarians. This is a bust.” She waved a hand to encompass everyone. “Flitters airborne in five. Let’s go.” She pointed to Domaki. “Ride with Kanaway.”

  With the Asian woman leading, they walked purposefully down the path toward the flitters. Bethnee pivoted on her knees to watch them go. She tried to follow them with her talent, but it was like trying to follow phantoms.

  She waited until the last of them vanished up the path, then sent her talent out to search for Trouble. He was appallingly close, under a tree, and would have been an easy target if one of the mercs had seen him. She collapsed onto her heels and let the muddy yellow dog come to her, even though it wouldn’t be truly safe until the flitters took off.

  Trouble allowed her to put an arm around him and hug him close. She wished the blonde woman hadn’t stripped her Axur-net earwire, so she could hear his voice again.

  Inexplicably, Trouble pulled away and stared intently at the path, growling softly.

  “Come on, Domaki.” Kanaway’s voice. “The sooner we find my pet-tracer scanner, the sooner we get off this ice ball.”

  Bethnee sent a panicked imperative to Trouble to run, but it was too late. Kanaway and Domaki strode into view, their flying lights illuminating her and Trouble.

  Kanaway looked triumphant. “This really is my lucky day.” He pulled a stunner out of his pocket and casually shot Domaki twice. Domaki’s body jolted like he’d been struck by lightning, then crumpled.

  Kanaway aimed the stunner at her. “You’re worth ten times the bounty of that old research shipment.” Avarice lit his face. “And I know just the buyer. He’s been looking for you for three years.”

  12

  * GDAT 3241.265 *

  Axur landed the runabout on the flat rocks above Bethnee’s cave just as the sun crept over the mountaintops, burnishing their white tops with gold. She’d pointed out the path the first day he’d been there to meet Jynx. He loaded his gear and started down the steep trail. He sped up when he overheard one of the mercs say he’d forgotten a scanner and would catch up to the others soon. Merc companies weren’t usually that disorganized.

  Bethnee was likely paying the price for his mistakes, not the least of which was forgetting that the experimental tech in his cybernetics wasn’t the only thing of value in the frozen north. He’d already been loading his runabout when he’d received her ping that she was planning to protect Trouble by letting the mercs catch her. He should have taken into account her willingness to sacrifice herself to protect the animals she loved. Her pet-trade captors had taught her she had no value, and he hadn’t found the right time or words to tell her how much she meant to him.

  At least the Del’Arche Planetary Enforcers were on their way. He’d lucked into an ex-Jumper answering his ping, and she’d believed him and agreed to send help. Then he’d used his experimental tech to crack the raiders’ temporary comms net.

  They were a mercenary company specializing in freelance bounty hunts. While a southern squad went after a trio of brothers whose capture would bring a big payday back in the Concordance, a smaller northern squad went north for a stolen shipment of designer pets with a high reward, and anything else they could steal while they were at it. They considered a small frontier town as easy reapi
ng.

  They’d only intended to disable the town’s satellite uplink, but the cheaply made building had collapsed. The three culprits had joined their two teammates at Nuñez’s vet clinic, where they’d been attacked by pissed-off geese and nearly been gored by an enraged yak. That team beat a hasty retreat to rendezvous with the main squad to the south. The remaining six went after veterinarian Bethnee because they knew the coordinates of her homestead.

  The same homestead to which he, like the flatliner he was, had sent her and his animals, thinking to keep them out of harm’s way. He was only slightly relieved when the merc company’s few comms after that told him they weren’t finding her to be easy reaping, either.

  From the trees near her cabin, he heard a man’s voice but couldn’t make out the words, and he couldn’t tell where it was coming from. He wished he had hearing like a dog’s… but he did, sort of. He quickly tuned his experimental tech to Trouble’s command processor, and pulled the auditory feeds.

  “...the door right now, your filthy dog dies in front of you.” A man’s baritone but nasal voice, full of menace. “And you know I’ll do it, too.”

  “It’s open.” Bethnee’s ordinarily expressive voice sounded flat and defeated. Axur clenched his jaw.

  “You first. No surprises.”

  Axur crept closer.

  “Are you going to leave Domaki down on the path? He’ll freeze.” Her tone said she didn’t care if he did.

  “That’s his problem. Slimy, subbin’ minder. He was going to tell Na Ming lies about me, just like you did with that fake surveillance vid you sent Breitenbahn. He blamed me for your escape.”

  Axur eased westward, close enough to see a red-haired man down, blocking the path to the flitter pad. He quickly stripped the unconscious man’s weapons, percomp, and earwire, then zip-tied his wrists and ankles and rolled him off the path into the ditch full of snow. The heated snowsuit would protect him from the cold for a while.

  “Turn on the lights,” said the man with Bethnee and Trouble. “Where are the other animals?”

  Axur ran down the path to the flitter, which they’d obligingly left unlocked. He pried open the control panel and used his homemade high-powered shockstick to good effect.

  “I only have one other. This house is too small for him. Axur mostly lives in his den up the mountain, but he’s closer today.”

  Axur smiled and let relief take some of his tension as he exited the flitter. Bethnee knew he was there, and was buying time. He sobered quickly, because she was playing a dangerous game.

  “Pet trade?”

  Axur ran up the path toward Bethnee’s house.

  “No.”

  “Liar. Make him come to you.”

  Axur used his cybernetic strength to jump to the top of the big three-meter-high rock in Bethnee’s front yard, which made him less immediately noticeable if her captor happened to look outside. The sun was already over the trees, and would soon be curving higher.

  “I can’t get around his controller. He’s not pet trade, he’s a military-enhanced experimental.”

  Axur heard the unmistakable sound of a slap.

  “Call him, or I’ll stun the dog and you both. Maybe have some naked playtime with you. Find out if you still like it rough and dirty.”

  Axur unslung his flechette gun and extended the guide for distance shots. His freighter had been sadly lacking in powered beamers, blasters, or railguns, so he’d made some analog weapons of his own, and practiced with them.

  The mercenary comms band flared to life in his ear with an abrupt tone. “Kanaway, Domaki, what’s the holdup?” The Mandarin-accented voice of the team leader sounded exasperated.

  “Uh, Domaki tripped on something in the vet’s yard and got stunned. I’m rigging something to carry him on.” Axur rolled his eyes at Kanaway’s unbelievably thin story.

  “Quit fucking around, Kanaway, or I’ll term you.” The team leader disconnected without waiting for Kanaway’s reply.

  Kanaway’s ugly laugh rang out. “Stupid pig doesn’t know what and who you are. I’ll take you by myself, and make Breitenbahn bleed mega credits to get you back. His business isn’t so good since you left.”

  Axur found a quasi-prone position on the rock and aimed his gun with its homemade flechettes loaded with quick-acting dormo. All he needed was a clear shot at Kanaway’s bare skin.

  “Call the animal. Now.”

  “We have to go outside, and leave the dog in here, or Axur won’t come at all.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Shoot me, then. Good luck carrying me all the way to your flitter and taking off before your crew comes looking. No grav carts around here like on Breitenbahn’s ship.”

  Stunner fire sounded, and Trouble yelped loudly in pain. Axur forced himself to let it roll off him, or he wouldn’t be calm enough to make the shot.

  “Outside!”

  After a long, tense moment, Bethnee limped slowly through the doorway, then stumbled forward when the man shoved her. “Call him!”

  She winced with every step as she limped haltingly toward the center of the little yard and stopped. Kanaway followed too close to her for Axur to shoot him. She bowed her head for a long moment, then turned to her right and looked expectantly toward the trees.

  Kanaway clamped one cruel hand on her neck and with his other, pointed the stunner toward the trees. A large raven landed in the tree and screeched loudly, making Kanaway twitch.

  A flicker of movement on Axur’s right tugged at his attention. He risked a quick glance and caught a glimpse of a large, black-furred shadow stalking through the snow.

  Axur winced at the loud tone in his merc comms earwire.

  “Kanaway, we’re coming for you and Domaki. Trummler’s order.” The team leader sounded disgruntled.

  Kanaway let go of Bethnee’s neck just long enough to touch his own earwire. “I’m already in the air.” He spoke aloud rather than subvocalizing.

  “Your flitter’s tracer is reporting itself as damaged and stolen. We’ll meet you in Tanimai.”

  Kanaway swore but said he’d be there, then touched the earwire. He stomped his foot in frustration and grabbed Bethnee’s neck again and forcibly turned her toward the path. “Let’s go.”

  She took one step, then stumbled sideways and landed on one knee. Kanaway let go as he struggled to keep his balance.

  A black blur shot out from the trees to the west. Kanaway saw the movement, but too late to avoid being knocked down by a determined dire wolf. Kanaway’s stunner sailed into the air and landed on the snowy gravel.

  The man rolled sideways and up to his hands and knees. He crawled fast toward the fallen weapon, but had to duck and cover his face to avoid the attack of a huge black raven, cawing noisily, diving straight for him with talons outstretched. He threw himself toward the stunner, but not in time to stop the other black raven from stealing it in a flurry of flight.

  Axur kept his gun trained on Kanaway, but couldn’t get a clear angle without shooting Serena, who stood between Kanaway and Bethnee, shoulder fur fluffed stiff, growling menacingly.

  Kanaway scrambled to his feet and spun to face the new threat. He held a phase knife in the stance of an experienced fighter. He touched his earwire and spoke aloud instead of subvocalizing. “Hey, Na Ming. Bring the big flitter back to the vet’s house and get the tranq guns ready. She’s got a fortune in stolen pets, starting with a trained dire wolf.”

  After a long moment, the Mandarin-accented woman’s voice answered. “Okay, but you better be on the level.” Na Ming sounded supremely testy. “We’re fifteen minutes out.”

  “See you soon.” Kanaway touched his earwire again. His eyes hadn’t once left the wolf. “Company’s coming. Give us the pets, or I’ll tell them what you are and what you’re worth.”

  Bethnee stayed on her knees and said nothing.

  Kanaway sidestepped toward the open door of Bethnee’s house. “Since you were so anxious to get me out of your house, the others must be in t
here.”

  Axur wished he could talk to Bethnee, but since he couldn’t, he reviewed his mission parameters. Protecting her was top priority, but she now had reinforcements from his animals, and probably hers. His secondary objective called for protecting them all from the mercenaries, which was a better use of his skills and resources, but it meant he’d have to leave Bethnee with a monster.

  Axur fucking hated the hard choices of war.

  13

  * GDAT 3241.265 *

  Bethnee felt like she was floating. Adrenaline still soured her stomach and made her shake, but she’d apparently hit her limit on fear, and had no more to give.

  Kanaway sneered. “Hey, Bakonin. How much does a dire wolf bring at auction?”

  The man was trying to keep her afraid, not thinking. She’d had enough of that to last a lifetime. “I don’t know. How much do you think I can trade for Domaki?” She’d seen through the raven’s eyes when Axur had pushed the telepath into the snowdrift. “Wonder what he’ll tell your bosses?”

  Kanaway huffed. “They won’t believe him. They know minders are all liars.”

  She sent a thread of talent to cue preciously cute, plump Shiza, the little foo dog with the fierce heart of a lion. He waddled out into the weak midday sun and barked.

  Kanaway turned. A slow, greedy smile formed. “See? Liars.”

  She asked Shiza to step closer to the man, but stay out of his reach. “Don’t pick him up,” she warned.

  “What’s he going to do, drool on me?” Kanaway laughed derisively.

  Bethnee took a nervous breath, then sent Shiza instructions. He barked once, then turned to go back inside the house.

  Kanaway glanced at the dire wolf, then focused on the foo dog. “Come here, you expensive little shit.” His tone was baby-talk sweet as he patted his thigh.

  Shiza slowed and turned to look up. Lightning fast, Kanaway dropped his phase knife to grab Shiza by the curly mane with both hands and drag him closer.